What am I choosing right now? Does it enrich my life and the life of the world?
- 03.29 : A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Lasater
I’m not the best time manager. I make plans. Schedule the day. Then end up getting ready for bed wondering why I didn’t accomplish all that I set out to do. Why does this happen? I waste A LOT of time. As I’m typing this, The Office is playing on the TV. I have no idea why I need the TV on in order to write a blog post. Perhaps if I wasn’t stopping every few minutes to watch (and laugh), I would have caught up on reading and commenting on blogs today. Maybe if I didn’t feel the need to read an entire review book today, I would have done the grocery shopping.
I love vegging out in front of the TV and losing myself in a good book (which for the record – today’s wasn’t great). How do I balance this with tasks that I want/need to complete? I’m trying to set aside a certain amount of time just for me to check out. That way I’m not telling myself that I can’t do it (because then I’ll want to all the time). I’m also not telling myself that it’s OK to do nothing all the time. The real trick is stopping once you start. One episode of Buffy turns into the whole season. One chapter turns into the whole book (I have a REALLY hard time not reading books in all one sitting).
I actually talked to a counselor about this a few years ago. She explained that it was similar to ADD, but with an opposite effect. Once something has my attention, I have a hard time pulling away. I’m somehow concerned that the activity or project won’t get finished if I don’t do it all at once. To fix this I need to start building trust in myself. It won’t be easy at first, but if I continually am able to jump back into a book or finish the blog post later, I’ll start to be able to set aside these tasks and spread my time more efficiently.
How do you balance leisure time?
Namaste
7 Responses to What am I choosing right now?
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I am so glad you asked this question, because it just so happens that I am an expert at balancing my leisure time. The first rule that I abide by is: work first, play later. I hate reading books in small little increments, too, so I get all my stuff done first to create hours of free time which I can devote to reading. For me, doing what I want to do (watching TV, reading, whatever) is a reward for finishing the stuff that I need to do.
However, it's also important not to let yourself become so bogged down in work that you never take breaks. Sometimes it's easier to focus after you take a short break. This is my secret for surviving graduate school. I would give myself permission to take breaks in the middle of something (especially if my focus was already slipping), and this served to recharge me. The problem, then, is learning how to stick to your breaks. If I allow myself to watch one TV show, then that's all I watch. It's incentive to continue working so I can watch MORE TV, if that makes sense. Of course, I don't think that I have the same problem of feeling like I won't accomplish something if I leave it alone for a while. I used to have a bunch of different things to do at work, and I would skip around to each one (the closest a human can ever come to truly multi-task) until they were all finished. It was actually easier and faster to do it this way then by doing one until it was all complete. It was too easy to get distracted if you focus all your energy on one.
…and social media is a time-suckage devil. but so. much. fun.
xo!
Soooooo true. At least I kicked my Facebook habit a few years ago. I've been tempted to make a "once an hour" Twitter rule for myself
I'm with you on this one: I sit and connect online, read blogs or tweet during my free time. I end up getting a lot less done than I needed to in the first place. But I've come to accept that what I need to do is usually what I end up doing so I don't beat myself up about it. I enjoy it!
I'm starting to get to that point. I've tried really hard to not make this blog a job. I think the hardest for me is getting behind on commenting on other blogs. I LOVE it, but always seem to underestimate how long it will take lol.
Sounds silly, but sometimes I need to live and die by a To Do list. If I have a lot of stuff I have to get done, I put it on a To Do list, and I even include workouts, fun stuff and dinner ideas, so I keep myself on track all day. And by looking at it I don’t forget what needs to be done. When its time to chill I take advantage and just let my day unfold as it will, but my To Do list helps keep me on track when I’m overloaded with stuff. Otherwise I’m right there with ya watching Buffy! I get lost in the fun stuff too
That doesn't sound silly to me at all!! I LOVE to do lists. I definitely going to start writing down my daily plans for my days off work. I can keep it next to the computer so I can see what I want to get done as a reminder to not waste the day away! Great idea! Thank you